CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- One of the most beautiful insects of summer in Chicago has been declared “endangered”, but that doesn’t mean you won’t see plenty of them around now.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has put the migratory monarch butterfly on its red or endangered list. They migrate more than two thousand miles each spring from Mexico up to Canada, breeding along the way.
“They’re huge, they’re brightly colored. They fly fairly slowly, so you can get a good look at them. It’s a wonderful opportunity to interact with nature,” said Dr. Doug Taron, PhD., chief curator at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
He also said monarchs are pollinators but that, like most butterflies, “are wimpy pollinators.”
Their main ecological role is to eat certain plants and be eaten by those higher up the food chain by things such as birds, lizards, dragonflies and anything that eats insects, according to Taron.
“Outside of looking beautiful, they’re looking like lunch,” he said.
Taron said he saw about a dozen monarch butterflies while walking around the grounds of the museum Thursday.
The international conservation group estimates the population of monarch butterflies has dropped between 22 percent and 72 percent over the past 10 years, depending upon the measurement method.
Taron discourages people from trying to breed monarch butterflies. Instead, he said the best way you can help the monarch population is to plant milkweek, black-eyed susans and asters.
“We are seeing monarchs quite a bit on the museum grounds at the moment," he said. "Butterflies, in general, including monarchs have gotten off to a slow start this year but they’re starting to ramp up."
Taron points out the the federal government has not declared the monarch butterfly “endangered”, which would confer a legal status on the species.
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